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MR. WEBSTER'S 



REMARKS 



AT THE 



iltctttng of tl)c Suffolk Bar, 



ON MOVING THE RESOLUTIONS 



OCCASIONED BY THE DEATH 



OF 



/ \ 7 V 

THE HOX. MR. JUSTICE STORY. 



BOSTON: 

JAMES ML'NROE AND COMPANY. 

184 5. 



£34-4 



Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1S45, by 

JAMES JIUNROE & CO. 

In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



i?M2 \ 



n o s t o x : 

S. N. Dickinson A. Co., Printers. 



boston, september 15, 1845. 
Venerable Madam ; 

I pray you to allow me to present to you the brief 
remarks which I made before the Suffolk Bar, on the 12th instant, 
at a meeting occasioned by the sudden and afflicting death of your 
distinguished son. I trust, dear Madam, that as you enjoyed, through 
his whole life, constant proofs of his profound respect, and ardent 
filial affection, so you may yet live long to enjoy the remembrance 
of his virtues, and his exalted reputation. 

I am, with very great regard, 

Your Obedient Servant, 

Daniel "Webster. 
To IMadaji Story. 



REMARKS. 



At a meeting of the Suffolk Bar, held in the Circuit Court Room, 
on the morning of the 1 2th of September, the day of the funeral 
of Mr. Justice Story, Chief Justice Shaw having taken the 
chair, and announced the object of the meeting, Mr. WebsteE 
rose and spoke nearly as follows: 



Your solemn announcement, Mr. Chief Justice, 
has confirmed the sad intelligence, which had 
already reached us, through the public channels of 
information, and deeply afflicted us all. 

Joseph Story, one of the associate Justices of the 
Supreme Court of the United States, and for many 
years the presiding Judge of this Circuit, died on 
Wednesday evening last, at his own house in Cam- 
bridge, wanting only a few days for the completion 
of the sixty-sixth year of his age. 



This most mournful and lamentable event has 
called together the whole Bar of Suffolk, and all con- 
nected with the courts of Law, or the profession. It 
has brought you, Mr. Chief Justice, and your asso- 
ciates of the Bench of the Supreme Court of Mas- 
sachusetts, into the midst of us ; and you have done 
us the honor, out of respect to the occasion, to consent 
to preside over us, while we deliberate on what is due, 
as weU to our own afflicted and smitten feeling's, as to 
the exalted character, and eminent distinction of the 
deceased Judge. The occasion has drawn from his 
retirement, also, that venerable man, whom we all 
so much respect and honor, (Judge Davis.) and who 
was, for thirty years, the associate of the deceased, 
upon the same Bench. It has called hither anoti 
judicial personage, now in retirement, (Judge Put- 
nam,) but long an ornament of that Bench, of which 
you arc now the head, and whose marked good for- 
tune it is, to have been the Professional Teacher of 
Joseph Story, and the director of his early studies. 
Ee is here, also, to whom mis blow comes near. — 
I mean the learned Judge, (Judge Sprague) imme- 
diately from whose side it has struck away. — a 
friend, and a highly venerated official associate. The 



members of the Sehool, to which the deceased was so 
much attached, and who returned that attachment 
with all the ingenuousness and enthusiasm of edu- 
cated and ardent youthful minds, are here also, to 
manifest then sense of their own severe deprivation, 
as well as then admiration of the bright and shining 
professional example, which they have so loved to 
contemplate ; — an example, let me say to them, and 
let me say to all, as a solace, in the midst of their 
sorrows, — which death hath not touched, and which 
time cannot obscure. 

Mr. Chief Justice, one sentiment pervades us all. 
It is that of the most profound and penetrating grief, 
mixed, nevertheless, with an assured conviction, that 
the great man whom we deplore, is yet with us, and 
in the midst of us. He hath not wholly died. He 
lives in the affections of friends, and kindred, and in 
the high regard of the community. He lives in our 
remembrance of his social virtues, his warm and 
steady friendships, and the vivacity and richness of 
his conversation. He lives, and will live still more 
permanently, by his words of written wisdom, by 
the results of his vast researches and attainments, 



by his imperishable legal judgments, and by those 
juridical disquisitions, which have stamped his name, 
all over the civilized world, with the diameter of a 
commanding authority. " 1 'irit. emm, vivi tgue semper; 
atque etiam latius in mrmoria hominum ct sermone 
versabitur, postquam ah omits recessit." 

]\Ir. Chief Justice, there are consolations which 
arise to mitigate our loss, and shed the influence 
of resignation over unfeigned and heartfelt sorrow. 
We are all penetrated with gratitude to God, that 
the deceased lived so long; that he did so much for 
himself, his friends, the country and the world ; that 
his lamp went out, at last, without unsteadiness or 
flickering. He continued to exercise every power of 
bis mind, without dimness or obscuration, and every 
affection of his heart, with no abatement of energy 
or warmth, till death drew an impenetrable veil 
between us and him. Indeed, he seems to us now, 
as in truth he is. no1 extinguished, or ceasing to be, 
but only withdrawn: as the clear sun goes down at 
its sitting, not darkened. bu1 only no longer seen. 

Thi> calamity, Mr. Chief Justice, is Dot confined to 
the Bar, or the ( Jourts, of this < lommonwealth. Ii will 



9 

be felt by every Bar, throughout the land, by every 
Court, and indeed by every intelligent and well- 
informed man, in or out of the Profession. It will 
be felt still more widely, for his reputation had a still 
wider range. In the High Court of Parliament, in 
every tribunal in Westminster Hall, in the Judicato- 
ries of Paris and Berlin, Stockholm and St. Petersburg, 
in the learned Universities of Germany, Italy and 
Spain, by every eminent jurist in the civilized world, 
it will be acknowledged, that a great luminary has 
fallen from the firmament of public jurisprudence. 

Sir, there is no purer pride of country, than that 
in which we may indulge, when we see America 
paying back the great debt of civilization, learning 
and science to Europe. In this high return of light 
for light, and mind for mind, in this august reckoning 
and accounting between the intellects of nations, 
Joseph Story was destined by Providence to act, 
and did act, an important part. Acknowledging, as 
we all acknowledge, our obligations to the original 
sources of English law, as well as of civil liberty, we 
have seen, in our generation, copious and salutary 
streams turning and running backward, replenishing 



10 



their original fountains, and giving a fresher and a 
brighter green to the fields of English jurisprudence. 
By a sort of reversed hereditary transmission, the 
mother, without envy or humiliation, acknowledges 
that she has received a valuable and cherished in- 
heritance from the daughter. English justice admits, 
with frankness and candor, and with no feeling but 
that of respect and admiration, that he, whose voice 
we have so recently heard within these walls, but 
shall now hear no more, was of all men who have 
yet appeared, most fitted by the comprehensiveness 
of his mind, and the vast extent and accuracy of his 
attainments, to compare the codes of nations, to trace 
their differences to dillerence of origin, climate, or 
religious or political institutions, and to exhibit, nev- 
ertheless, their concurrence in those great principles. 
upon which the system of human civilization rests. 

Justice, sir. is the great interest of man on earth. 
It is tin 1 ligamentj which holds civilized beings, and 
civilized nations together. Wherever her temple 
stands, and so lonu' as it is dulv honored, there is a 
foundation lor social security, general happiness, ami 
the improvement and progress of our race. And 
whoever labors on this edifice, with usefulness and 



11 



distinction, whoever clears its foundations, strength- 
ens its pillars, adorns its entablatures, or contributes 
to raise its august dome still higher in the skies, 
connects himself, in name, and fame, and character, 
with that which is and must be as durable as the 
frame of human society. 

All know, Mr. Chief Justice, the pure love of 
country, which animated the deceased, and the zeal, 
as well as the talent, with which he explained and 
defended her Institutions. His work on the Con- 
stitution of the United States, is one of his most 
eminently successful labors. But all his writings, 
and all his judgments, all his opinions, and the 
whole influence of his character, public and private, 
leaned strongly and always, to the support of sound 
principles, to the restraint of illegal power, and to 
the discouragement and rebuke of licentious and dis- 
organizing sentiments. "Ad rempvblicarn firmandam, 
et ad stabiliendas vires, et sanandum populum, onmis 
ejus jwgebat institution 

But this is not the occasion, sir, nor is it for me to 
consider and discuss at length, the character and 



12 



merits of Mr. Justice Story, as a writer or a Judge. 
The performance of that duty, with which this Bar 
will, no doubt, charge itself, must be deferred to 
another opportunity, and will be committed to abler 
hands. But. in the homage paid to his memory, one 
part may come with peculiar propriety and emph; 
from ourselves. We have known him in private life. 
We have seen him descend from the Bench, and 
mingle in our friendly circles. We have known his 
manner of life, from his youth up. We can bear 
witness to the strict uprightness and purity of his 
character; his simplicity, and unostentatious habits ; 
the ease and affability of his intercourse; his remark- 
able vivacity, amidst severe labors, the cheerful and 
animating tones of his conversation, and his fast 
fidelity to friends. Some of us. also, can testify to 
his large and liberal charities, not ostentatious or 
casual, but systematic, and silent; — dispensed almost 
without showing the hand, and falling and distilling 
comfort and happiness, like the dews of heaven. — 
But we can testify, also, that in all his pursuits and 
employments, in all his recreations, in all his com- 
merce with the world, and in his intercourse with 
the circle of his friends, the predominance of his 



13 



judicial character was manifest. lie never forgot 
the ermine which he wore 1 . The Judge, the Judge, 
the useful and distinguished Judge, was the great 
picture which he kept constantly before his eyes, 
and to a resemblance to which all his efforts, all his 
thoughts, all his life, were devoted. We may go 
the world over, without finding a man who shall 
present a more striking realization of the beautiful 
conception of D'Aguesseau, " C 'est vain que Ton cherche 
a distinguer en hi lapersonne privee et hi personne pubU- 
cjue ; un meme esprit Us an/ me, un merne objet les rtunit ; 
Fhomme, le jure cle famiUe, le eitoyen, tout est en lui 
ccrnsacre a la ghire du Magistrate 

Mr. Chief Justice, one may live as a conqueror, a 
king, or a magistrate; but he must die as a man. 
The bed of death brings every human being to his 
pure individuality ; to the intense contemplation of 
that deepest and most solemn of all relations, the 
relation between the creature and his Creator. Here 
it is, that fame and renown cannot assist us ; that 
all external things must fail to aid us; that even 
friends, affection, and human love and devotedness, 
cannot succor us. This relation, the true foundation 



1 1 

of all duty, a relation perceived and felt by con- 
science, and confirmed by revelation, our illustrious 
friend, now deceased, always acknowledged. He 
reverenced the scriptures of truth, honored the pure 
morality which they teach, and seized hold on the 
hopes of future life, which they impart lie saw 
enough in nature, in himself, and in all that can be 
known of things seen, to fee] assured that there is a 
Supreme Tower, without whose Providence not a 
sparrow falleth to the ground. To this gracious 
Being he trusted himself, for time and for eternity; 
and the last words of bis lips, ever heard by mortal 
ears, were a fervent supplication to his Maker to 
take him to Himself. 



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